Asia’s economic growth in the past half century has hinged on its “demographic dividend” – it is home to well over half of the world’s population and the majority of the world’s skilled and unskilled workers. Yet many parts of Asia are facing a job creation challenge, a malaise that has hit developed and developing …

  A new generation is coming to power in Asia. Where their parents’ lives too often were defined by hunger, war, and revolution, Asia’s youth have grown up in the midst of the biggest economic boom in history. Today’s young Asians are better-fed, better-educated, and have access to the world through the Internet in a …

  The Greater Pearl River Delta (PRD) region has succeeded in the past as the world’s factory. With about 100 million people, Guangdong province would rank as one of the world’s larger countries, with a population about the same as the Philippines and larger than Germany or Vietnam. The PRD region, where about half of …

The future of Asia’s countries lies in its cities. Asian cities are experiencing huge growth in population and wealth; they have the potential to become centers for an increasingly sophisticated workforce and consumer markets with growing purchasing power. Cities are high-productivity centers that generate much of a country’s wealth. But if urban growth is not …

How prepared is Asia for pandemic and epidemic diseases? While efforts by national governments and international organizations to prevent and control pandemics in the region have been instrumental in mitigating disaster in the short-term, they have also exposed more systemic weaknesses that call into question Asia’s preparedness for future outbreaks. Future preparedness is important, because …

  The current global economic crisis has led to millions of job losses and likely will lead to more. As businesses and industries restructure, many of these jobs will not be recovered. At the same time, the world’s top scientists are sounding warnings about urgent environmental concerns, including climate change and limited natural resources to …

Whether Asia can become more innovative is a question whose answer holds the key to raising Asia’s future competitiveness and living standards for its populations. The region’s past few decades of rapid economic growth have largely been driven by its ability to become the factory of the world. Foreign know-how was important and there was …

The food and agriculture sector is a key part of Asia’s regional economy. Asian economies are among the world’s leading producers, consumers, exporters and importers of major agricultural commodities, most notably rice, but also other grains, oilseed, and increasingly meat. Asia is also home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, or almost 2 billion people, …

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly has become a central business issue. Businesses are increasingly integrating social and environmental issues into their strategies and operations, to help them navigate a world in which the Internet, text messaging, and other technologies magnify any misstep. Asian businesses are increasingly putting their stamp on the global CSR debate. From …

Buildings account for around 30 percent of the world’s total energy consumption and a similar percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. But most buildings in Asia are surprisingly inefficient at using energy for lighting, heating and cooling. More than half of the world’s new construction is taking place in China and India alone, yet …